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Wasteland by Susan Kimturned out to be a giant waste of my time.It really is the worst post-apocalyptic YA book I have read to date. Maybe that’s a terrible thing to say and some might say something like, “Hey, I don’t see you publishing a book.” That’s true, but I don’t think it’s necessary for me to publish a book to make such a statement. I have spent the last few years reading and reviewing 2-4 books of this genre per month, so I feel that gives me some credibility to take such a strong stand. I am not trying to hurt the author’s feeling, but I am sure that could be the result; however what I hope is that this honesty spurs her to do better. This is such an exciting genre that I look forward to reading these types of books and have generally been impressed by the quality of writing…I mean some writers might be tempted to rely on the world building and other action plot devices instead of the quality of the writing, so that’s why I am usually pleasantly surprised whenever I read something like this.

The plot consists of a town of kids and teens many years after an apocalyptic event. There aren’t any adults as when people turn eighteen they die of a horrible sickness and are expelled from the community. As there is such a short life span the milestones of adulthood are speeded up. Children are organized into work crews to scavenge for supplies and food and the teens ‘marry’ and bear children. The problem for the town in this story is there isn’t any left to scavenge in the area and food and water are running low. The latter is an especially big problem as once bottled water runs out you cannot drink from streams or lakes as all water is contaminated/poisoned. In addition to the kids who live in the town, there are beings that live on the outskirts. I say beings because they are not quite human, they look different than the kids and they are born hermaphrodites and then choose what sex they want to be when they turn a certain age. Due to their differences, they are shunned by the town kids who are prejudiced against them, though the main character in the story, Esther, is best friends with one of these variants, though they both hide it from their people. Add to these characters a young dictator who controls food and water supplies and a mysterious stranger who comes to town and you have a lot of characters, too many really, and none of them are written in a way where they appeared ‘real’ or made me care about them, they were all pretty cartoonish.

Some of my criticisms of the book include squeezing too many divergent plot points into the story, having superfluous characters, not enough development of the main characters and their motivations, multiple ‘surprises’ that can be guessed at from a mile away, and a truly gag inducing romance. I would say to the author, simplify, simplify, simplify. Have one main plot and at most one subplot. Develop the characters enough to make us actually be interested in then or care what happens to them. Axe the immature romance, you don’t always have to put a romance into this genre, can’t survivors just have strong bonds of friendships? I mean, I don’t think in the struggle to survive I would be thinking too hard about whether a boy ‘likes me’, do you agree? I could see sex in these books as a way to repopulate the earth after the apocalyptic event, but can you really have a lot of romance when every minute is a struggle to survive and due to lack of food and hygiene no one is really looking so hot?

I mean I really think writers of this genre start with an advantage over other authors as they have a lot of creative license when building worlds, and dramatic license based on the drama involved with an apocalyptic or dystopian environment. So with those in built strengths, focus on the writing itself, otherwise the books will come off as very one-dimensional, like the typical Hollywood action film.

For someone who writes a book review blog, what could be a more horrifying scenario than a novel about a post-apocalyptic world without books? The Last Book in the Universe by Rodman Philbrick came out of the author writing that down as a title and then developing first a short story, then later publishing as full novel.

In a future America after an event referred to as The Shake, a giant earthquake has changed the culture of generations. The descendants of most of the original survivors live a hardscrabble existence divided into districts known as latches. Each latch is controlled by a ruthless leader who employs fear and violence over the inhabitants. A teen named Spaz lived in one of the slightly better latches and was raised by foster parents despite the fact that he is an epileptic. However, when they had a child of their own, the father was worried that Spaz might somehow hurt Bean, his sister. The reality is that Spaz loves Bean more than anyone in the world and would never cause her any harm, but his foster father was unconvinced and kicked him out of their home and he was banished from that entire latch. Without any other options, Spaz goes to live in a latch ruled over by gang leader Billy Bizmo who lets him be part of the group as long as he steals valuable items for them.

What doesn’t make sense to me in this book is that Billy is able to steal or scavenge a lot of old tech devices and gadgets, but he never comes across a single book when there were once millions. Yes, paper is a bit more delicate than metal, but given the amount of books that existing pre-Shake you would think some would survive, but I guess if that were this case this book wouldn’t exist. Perhaps one reason there aren’t any books is maybe people burned them for fuel or used them for other things as they wouldn’t have seen value in books, people have other forms of entertainment in this world. They still have something like dvds, though most people prefer probes. Probes are needles you stick into your brain to have something like a virtual reality experience, but more direct and intense as it is interfacing directly with your brain. Maybe it’s that intensity that makes the probes seem similar to a drug as the people of Spaz’s world seem to get addicted to them, or maybe it’s just people want to escape their hard and dreary lives. Spaz doesn’t use probes because he can’t due to his epilepsy and it’s what makes him different than most people. You see when the probes are overused they affect memory; people only store information in their short term memory, not their long term memory if they use the probes too much.

One day Spaz sets off for the Stacks, an old storage unit where the poorest of the poor live. His mission is to steal from an old man named Ryter, which readers will discover is an apt name. Ryter is so compliant about letting Spaz steal all his possessions that Spaz becomes suspicious and spots what the man in hiding, a sheath of papers. It turns out the man is writing a book, which Spaz doesn’t see the point of as no one reads and there aren’t any libraries anymore so he wonders why anyone would be so dedicated to write a book, yet somehow it intrigues him and he ends up returning to talk to the man. Around the time of this burgeoning friendship, Spaz is told by a Messenger who has crossed the latches (which is illegal and dangerous) that his foster sister is deathly ill and he is determined to risk everything to see her.

Spaz ends up being accompanied on this journey by Ryter who sees this as an opportunity to write one final big adventure to add to his book despite the danger. Inevitably, they run into some very bad situations while on the trip, but one good event happens, they run into Lanaya, a proov. Proovs are like the current 1% as they live a completely different life than anyone in the latches. They live a life of luxury, get physical enhancement which are well beyond current plastic surgery and live in their own territory isolated from the 99%, though Lanaya is an exception among her community as she comes to the latches and hands out food packages similar to people who currently hand out food to the homeless. The occurrence of the two worlds colliding will have significant repercussions for all the characters.

As a woman, the scariest dystopian books are about a future world where women have lost about 300 years of progress and are treated as chattel to be bought and sold. Such is the case in The Glass Arrow by Kristen Simmons.

Aya has grown up isolated in the mountains with her mother, cousin and another woman and her children. They are all in hiding outside the big city where all girls who are ‘pure’ and possibly fertile are put in a special dormitory in the city to await their turn at auction and Aya’s mother doesn’t want that to happen to her daughter. It’s not just the idea that her daughter might become some man’s possession, but Aya’s mother knows first-hand that a girl not found to be ‘pure’ will have an X carved into her face with a knife and be given to the brothels. Even girls who do attend and are bid on at the auction, have to face a ‘private meeting’ with their prospective buyer who sometimes take advantage of the girls, a rich pimp could bid on a girl at auction and make her his working girl. Even if a ‘respectful businessman’ buys a girl, if he tires of her eventually, he could send her back to the dorm to be auctioned off again while he finds a new wife.

No, scraping a living out of the mountains is a better life in Aya’s mom’s mind and Aya agrees. Brought up free and strong, she knows she is so much more than anyone’s piece of property. However, the fresh air and food she consumes outside of polluted city make her a prime target as it means she is fertile enough to bear children, especially the male ones wanted by the city. Just like what still happens in many countries today, girl babies are sometimes killed as they lack value. They live when the female count is low.

Things weren’t always like this, Aya’s mom has told her stories of a time when all women walked proud and free until the Red Wars when men turned on women similar to the Salem Witch Trials and killed most women and enslaved the remainder. These tales told deep in the mountains have always been scary for Aya to hear, but they are not near as scary as the day Trackers invade her family’s mountain home. Freedom is never more precious than to those who have lived it and now may lose it.

The Vault by Emily McKay is not a series I wanted to end. I mean, until I started reading apocalyptic and dystopian fiction I had no interest in vampires. This book also have an autistic character as one of the main characters, and I have some conflicted conditions about that disorder after the measles epidemic this summer due to parents who did not want to vaccinate their kids because they mistakenly believe that vaccinations cause it when it does not, all it does it put other children at risk.

So why did I like this series and particularly last book so much when it already had many strikes against it? The characters were well-written and they just felt real. I think too many teen characters come across as immature or too love-struck and that wasn’t the case with Lily and Carter, nor was there the overused plot device of a love triangle. No, the biggest love was actually between Lily and her autistic sister and twin Mel. Even with difficulties in communicating, the two have an amazing bond, and in this final book Mel became much more vivid as a character and strong person in her own right, not someone who everyone else has to be taking care of and I liked that.

Yes, this is definitely not Twilight for those who start drooling at the mention of vampires. No, in this book vampires are largely cruel and their twisted kin the ‘Ticks’ are truly frightening, as unlike their vampire brethren, their minds are gone and they are driven not by logic or emotions but instinct and need. A Tick is exactly what Lily will turn into if her boyfriend Carter and her sister Mel can’t find the antidote because you see Ticks are not supernatural creatures, they were created by a vampire who was actually trying to develop a cure for cancer and was helped by a human crew. You see, in this book it isn’t necessarily all vampires against humans, it’s vampires against vampires and humans against humans. After all, Lily and Mels father is one of those humans, the guards at the camps where teens are kept as a blood source for Ticks set teens against teens. Sabrina, a former human and Abductura goes after Sebastian, a vampire. There is plenty of tension in this book for people who enjoy both emotional and physical tension.

The story unfolds in alternating chapter by the main characters. That’s another thing I liked about this book, in most stories there is really one main character and a cast of supporting characters, or at most two main characters. I would argue that The Vault has not only four strong main characters, but some pretty strong supporting characters too that if this were a TV show would easily get their own spinoff series as each one brings a unique perspective to the overarching story.

In the case of California by Edan Lepucki the world goes out with a whimper not a bang. Maybe in a way that’s the more likely scenario rather than a single catastrophe. After all, isn’t that what we are seeing right now in our news? We have a variety of problems, several are climate related, but those are tied with social unrest too, it’s all one giant Venn diagram of interconnected issues,which is what I think has paralyzed both individuals and politicians in making any progress to fix our problems.

The novel California only lightly touches on some of the events that lead to the situation that Cal and Frida find themselves in… a severe blizzard in the Midwest, the inequality of the 1%, lack of fuel and energy. Frida’s world was normal until about the time she entered high school when the cracks in our society began to show. Yet her younger brother Micah was able to attend college, well it was one of those experimental colleges, a bit like Evergreen College in Washington, a cross between intellectualism and back to the land hippie education, but for men only. However, it was free and the concept of skills like agriculture and animal husbandry made it an attractive place for Cal, Micah’s roommate too. The most complex relationship in the books to me is the one between the two roommates, not the relationship between Cal and Micah’s sister Frida which eventually becomes a marriage. Micah is this Svengali-like figure at Plank, the school, though Cal has a silent strength of his own that will be needed w in the future. Micah goes from pulling pranks to being radicalized by the mysterious Toni. After the boys graduate they all return to LA where Micah and Frida are from, but Micah goes to live in the Encampment as he has joined The Group. His roommate Cal has chosen another path, he is in love with Frida and they move into an apartment together, Cal tries to eke out a living growing vegetables while Frida works in a bakery until the supplies dwindle and the place closes. Eventually Micah is involved in a shocking event.

All of the above is told in flashbacks as the story actually begins with Cal and Frida arriving on The Land. After all, in LA normal life is starting to crumble and it’s not exactly safe in many places. Cal thinks it would be best if they leave the city, though it’s never actually made clear where “The Land” actually is. The pair find a shed to live in and are living a Walden Pond existence. While it’s a primitive way of living, it’s peaceful and makes me question their later choice to leave what seems to me like a safe haven, one that even has good neighbors. There is a family nearby who teach them additional life of the land skills. Neighbors who warn them not to leave The Land for an area called The Forms. Maybe they would have complied if Cal hadn’t found the bodies of Bo and Sandy and their children who appear to have poisoned themselves in a mass suicide a la Jonestown in Guyana.

I guess this is why I couldn’t stand the character of Frida in the book. Cal has done everything to take care of her and keep her safe and she just comes off as clueless, willful and capricious. It’s Frida who insists they hike out to the Forms to meet the people living there, a decision that unravels the past, present and future. If you have ever wondered about people who choose to live off the grid, or choose to join a cult, or choose to live in a gated walled off community, well you will probably find this book interesting as it has elements similar to all three. However, after a fair amount of building tension the ending left me empty, unless it wasn’t meant to be an ending, but just the first book in a sequel or series. Normally, I would get online and look but I am still chewing on a bitter aftertaste of feeling a bit let down by the last few chapters.

What do you think is the more interesting story, a story that takes place post-apocalyptic event or before? Personally, I think a book that takes place prior to the event is a more interesting story, as there is the suspense and tension of knowing that something life-changing, well actually world changing, is about to happen and there isn’t anything you personally can do about it. After all, don’t we have change management seminars and the like because people are resistant to change? Once an apocalyptic event happens, it happens, and you are busy dealing with survival in the aftermath. That doesn’t provide much time for self-reflection. As hard as that is to survive a disaster, I think it’s harder psychologically to deal with knowing the big change is coming, but wondering if you and the people will survive and what should you say to those people knowing what is coming. You can’t focus on everyday matters not knowing whether you will be brave or calm in the thick of it, so how much will you question yourself as a person? So how do you fill that waiting time, with what activities? Drugs, looting, sex, parties, family time, what? What would it be like to regret the chances you didn’t take in life knowing that now you won’t have those choices anymore, that there are no do-overs.

This is why I kind of liked the book All We Have is Now by Lisa Schroeder. Emerson and Vince are two homeless kids living rough who didn’t think things could get much worse. Then they learn along with the rest of the world that an asteroid is going to hit Earth in a couple of weeks. They observe the different reactions of people around them. Some people loot, some party, some find oblivion in drugs, and some people commit suicide. That’s what the pair decide to do. After all, they do everything together and have a very strong bond based on helping each other survive on the streets. The part of why they are living on the streets is what bugged me a little. There are hints that Vince experienced some things dark enough to explain why he became homeless, whereas Emerson’s reasons for being a runaway sound very petty and immature, there was nothing in her life that was so bad that going hungry and cold on the streets makes sense.

Anyway, the pair’s plan takes a major U-Turn when they find that the bridge they were planning to jump from has already been called dibs by Carl. Carl talks to the pair telling them that he has spent his last days trying to grant people their wishes and he will do one more for them before he goes. Vince’s wish leads the two into some encounters that impact strangers and family alike. It’s kind of a play on the ‘pay it forward’ phenomena, and while some of the encounters come off as a bit too contrived or coincidental, I appreciated that this was a different take on the pre-apocalypse type of story. It would be nice to think that instead of violence in the last days for mankind, our humanity will be displayed by the individual acts of kindness of which we are all capable.

When most people hear ‘apocalyptic novel’ they think of a natural disaster such as global warming, drought, tsunamis or hurricanes, or even a man-made problem such as nuclear warfare, but they don’t leap first to a zombie apocalypse.

Positive by David Wellington takes what some would deem a supernatural or sci fi concept and makes it seem as likely as one of the more traditional apocalyptic events as those above. Particularly as the protagonist Finn hasn’t ever seen a zombie since he was born after the event from two parents who met in one of the many emergency shelters. Since Finn and his closest childhood friend have never even seen a zombie, and no one has reported any in years, they are distanced from the very idea of what that means. Not just distanced but even annoyed by the previous generation who display behaviors similar to the effects of PTSD that the post event generation doesn’t relate to. The previous generations come off as paranoid and zone out at times when something reminds them of the horror. All Finn cares about is the simple life of his family, and doing his part to keep them fed with his fishing expeditions to the subways, which flooded years ago with no one to maintain them.

A discovery during one of the fishing expeditions leads to an life altering event as Finn discovers that there are things about zombieism that he never knew, including the idea that he might be harboring the virus that causes such a state in his own body. Well, he doesn’t believe it, but his community does and brand him a ‘Positive.’Finn is booted out to go live in a camp with other ‘Positives’ until two years have passed and he will be proven to be safe from zombiesm. Not a great situation, but its made worse when his ride turns up dead and suddenly this sheltered boy is on his own.

However, he is not on his own for long as he meets an eccentric array of characters, some positive and some negative that will lead him on a journey across the country. I mean, what’s better than a good old-fashioned road trip adventure? A road trip with zombies. Yes, Finn quickly learns why the First Gen behave the way they do, yet it’s not just zombies that force him to grow up so quickly. In the world outside his community there are bandits, thieves, child molesters and questionable people galore. Yet, there are also those who live with honor in a world turned upside down. My favorite character is the female ex-patrolman who follows the strictest rules in a world where there are none anymore. She reminds me of reading Shane in middle school.

Some of the action reminds me of Mad Maxx minus the desert, but with the vehicles, violence and the fall of women to property status. I like that the author David Wellington didn’t turn Finn into some kick ass fighter, or a torn soul tempted by violence. Each encounter and act on his part is a struggle, which is what makes him interesting in a world where it would be much easier to throw aside your scruples to simply survive. I guess that’s what Finn is all about, his goal isn’t to simply survive, he wants more. He has a vision to rebuild the world, and right the wrongs, a decision that may cost him and the ones he loves everything. Because he narrates his own past in the book, we know he survived, but did he lose his purity and his vision for a different future? That’s what kept my interest throughout this YA book that had a maturity beyond its YA market.

Gone are the days of pre-teens and teens reading The Baby Sitter’s Club, Sweet Valley High or even Flowers in the Attic. Dystopian and apocalyptic fiction is a very popular genre for this market, but I can’t help compare the violence of this genre to popular books in previous eras. I mean the darkness and sex in Flowers in the Attic was certainly scandalous, and discussed in hushed whispers by schoolgirls, but there wasn’t any violence of the sort found in the average apocalyptic book. I am not saying apocalyptic books should not have violence in them, a world ending event by nature is going to be brutal, I am just wondering if there is any kind of ceiling on how far an author will take things. I also realize that apocalyptic and dystopian novels also have lots of adult readers, people like me.

In the Ashfall series there was a high level of violence and gore. Former upstanding citizens turning into violent cannibals for one, but somehow it was manageable because the protagonist, Alex, reminded me of a young Atticus Finch. He had this real moral core even in the heart of darkness and therefore he balanced the violence of the story by providing hope. I guess that’s my problem with Endgame by James Frey and Nils Johnson-Shelton, the story really doesn’t have anyone providing that strong moral center.

In this story generation after generation specific children from all over the world have been trained to be Players in case the Endgame happens in their generation. They need to be prepared to play The Endgame, in which the world will end except for the Player who wins and their tribe. Yes, in The Hunger Games, there were some counties? Who had trained their representatives, but in most cases the participants were just the unlucky ones who were chosen by lottery. The Players of Endgame are trained in violence and assassination since they were young, in fact, Players age out after their teens and a new Player fills their spot. These kids know what their role is and some even seem to relish it. It’s hard to find a sympathetic character as most of the Players have already killed prior to the start of Endgame, it kind of reminds me of pictures of young child soldiers in Africa. Their weapons are the toys of their childhood and the stakes are higher than Katniss saving her sister, each Player knows that by winning the rest of the world will die and only their people will make it.

I think the authors tried to inject some humanity into these young killers by having some of them form alliances, but this is not Survivor, the stakes are much higher. In the end even the ones who have worked together in an alliance will eventually have to kill their former partner. The other technique the authors try to use to make the characters more palatable is by adding a couple of ‘love’ stories. I use the term ‘love’ lightly as one couple consists of a bomb wielding psycho who kidnaps another Player who when she is around him cures his tics, and of course she falls in love with her captor and when she gets away, leaves him her fingernails, ew. The other relationship is of course a love triangle and the Player, Sarah Alopay, might be the only one who is relatable. She was the All-American girl, waiting to age out of being a Player, so she can go off to college and stay in a relationship with her high school boyfriend. Endgame finishes her fantasy of living a normal life and very quickly she gets involved with another Player, even while her faithful boyfriend follows her into hell. I get that playing the game changes a person, but all the more reason for her to stick with the boyfriend who represents all the good things she is trying to save by playing, rather than migrate to someone who represents the violence of the game.

Usually I need to really care about a character(s) to keep reading, but at nearly 500 pages for the first book alone, it was already a significant investment of time. Also, there is plenty of action and changes of scenery, and it’s not like the writing isn’t good, plus there are some mysteries to be solved and truths to be discovered. So I will continue with this series, but I hope in the next book the authors will get more inside the heads of the characters and flashback to their childhoods. What I think would be most interesting to explore is what it would be like to have the weight of this responsibility on such young shoulders. That just at the age where most kids are being told there isn’t any such thing as monsters under the bed, what is it like to find out that you will need to BECOME the monster to help your people survive?

Alive by Scott Sigler reminded me of being deliciously off-balance the way I was when I read the first book in the Maze Runner series. In this case however, a girl, Em, wakes up in the last place you would want to wake up in. That’s why I loved the first book, The Maze Runner, and hated the rest as once the initial ‘mystery’ was explained the next book was inferior and I never finished the series.

That’s not to say that by the end of Alive readers don’t have some answers, but with those answers that are given, new questions are raised, and that’s why I have hopes that the rest of this series will be able to sustain interest.

Of course it doesn’t hurt that Em has a strong case of girl power. In other apocalyptic books that can be one-dimensional, that the girl is a tough ass-kicker. While it’s true that Em fights her way out of the place she woke up in, it’s not about physical power with her. It’s that she is a leader, and she likes it, and is reluctant to give that away to the boys who vie with her for the leadership spot. She also uses her brain to think things through, though when circumstances call for it, she can be one tough cookie. What makes her the best leader though, is her ability to recognize when she has made a mistake and her protective instincts towards the others who are in the same situation.

If I am being a little bit vague about the details of this story, it’s because I read the afterword by Scott Sigler. I haven’t encountered a situation until now where an author asks those of us bloggers to not provide spoilers. After thinking it over, he’s right, I should be careful to not ruin for other readers that sense of disorientation I had reading the first several chapters that drew me in to the story. Too often I can guess what is happening in a story miles before the writer actually tells us, but since in this case it was not easy to guess what was going on, I will show due respect and try to write enough to entice people to read it without giving away the farm. How to do that without saying too much is just a little tricky though. I guess it’s kosher to provide some comparisons, so in addition to saying that if you liked the feeling of being off-balance in Maze Runner you might want to try this one, I will also say if you liked the world-building of Wool and the idea of tribes or cliques as in Quarantine and The Uprising then you will like this for those qualities.

Finally, while Em has fluttery feelings for a couple of the boys, it has not yet turned into some clichéd love triangle as in many dystopian tales. No, Em seems to recognize that there are more important things going on than having a crush. It’s up to her to figure out where they are, how they got there, and most importantly how to get the heck out. This book answers the first, only brushes on the second leaving us wanting more and doesn’t even answer the last. That’s enough to incentivize me to read the next one, is that enough for you to read the first?

In The Country of Ice Cream Star author Sandra Newman has broken some rules. First, in her post-apocalyptic tale most of the American survivors are black or Hispanic. Second, Ms. Newman doesn’t just build a world, but she builds a new language. Third, the book is nearly 600 pages.

It’s interesting that Sandra Newman, who is Caucasian, decided to create a situation where the survivors were minorities. Was she trying to make a political statement? Did she use this as a device to turn our ideas about the world upside down, the same way an apocalyptic event would flip everything we thought to be true about our world? Ideas such as we can fight any threat either technologically or militarily? That disaster will bring out the best in people? That the young and vulnerable would perish in greater numbers than adults with skills and experience?

Probably one of the reasons Ms. Newman made this choice is that it allowed her to write the book in a new language of her invention. Maybe ‘new’ is not completely accurate as I was able to read the book without ever being exposed to this language before, but it wasn’t the English that I know. Instead, this is a form of English that has evolved, and more specifically it evolved as a language of youth and from current African American vernacular. The fact that the heroine of the book is named Ice Cream Star already sets you on the path of buying into this invented language. You see in Ice Cream Star’s country, the former USA, the adults were killed off by WAKS a disease that seems something similar to the Black Plague or modern day Ebola. The disease reminded me of the Black Plague because one of the symptoms that appear when kids reach their eighteenth birthday is sores referred to as ‘posies’. The song lyrics ‘ring around the rosey, pocket full of posey’ that children sing on playgrounds now actually is about the Black Death, the ‘rosey’ being the sores and the ‘posey’ being flowers that people sniffed to avoid breathing in the smell of decaying bodies. The respiratory issues of WAKS are somewhat Ebola-like.

Ice Cream Star doesn’t have a reason to worry about WAKS yet, as she is only fifteen, until her brother, the leader of her people, the Sengles, approaches his eighteenth birthday. Besides Ice has plenty of other things to occupy her mind as the Sengles are petty thieves who steal to supplement what they hunt. Also, she is mother-figure to many of the Sengles who range in age from babies and up. Considering everyone’s short life span it doesn’t seem like a stretch that she would have such responsibilities. Yet, in other ways Ice Cream Star is exactly like a fifteen year old when it comes to her emotions, which include some complicated feelings for boys in and outside her community. The Sengles are not the only band of survivors in Massa (the former Massachusetts), there is a religious sect called the Christings and the Armies, a violent misogynistic tribe. Yet, it’s among the latter that Ice Cream has a romantic entanglement. I think that was the most frustrating, but also the best part of the book due to the challenge it gives readers. How can Ice with her bravery, leadership qualities and compassion be involved with someone from a group that rapes girls? Even after nearly 600 pages I was still asking that question.

That’s the other rule Ms. Newman broke, the story length. Usually with post-apocalyptic books there is so much action and violence that writing a lengthy book would be like a roller coaster ride for an hour. It’s too much, there’s a reason that any rollercoaster in the world is a short ride albeit an intense one. Usually, if an author in this genre has an extended story to tell they simply end the book at 200-350 pages and continue the story in a sequel. Based on the length of this book I thought it was just a one book story, but I have confirmed that there will be a sequel. I have to hope it will be released soon as after getting use to the new language of the book, it’s cadence feels more natural than when I started, but if I have to wait very long for the sequel, I will have to relearn the language.